Some game situations don't necessarily need to roleplayed in detail. Rather, a summary of the action can be described briefly and perhaps accompanied by a dice roll or two to determine the outcome.

Some games use systems such as this to resolve actions such as mass combat involving hundreds or thousands of troops engaging on a battlefield. Since the game is supposed to be concentrated on the exploits of a handful of heroes, not the gruntwork of all the troops under their command, it can bog the game down too much to play out such a thing in detail.

Similar time-saving abstractions can occur with processes that take inordinately long amounts of time in real life, such as courtroom trials, building a castle, or applying for a driving licence.

Transcript

GM: Ben, this is a great write-up you sent me. It's worth +5 on your Diplomacy roll.Chewbacca: Surely a reasonable person would make it worth at least a +7.GM: I'm a GM. Your Wookiee elocution tricks don't work on me.Chewbacca: But do they work on Rebel jurors? <roll> 14.GM: Well, with your racial Eloquence bonus... that gets both you and Han off all the treason charges.Han: Hooray! Vindicated!Leia: Yeah, by a dice roll.Han: The dice don't lie.R2-D2: Justice works in mysterious ways.